Running head: FINAL TOPIC PAPER 1

Jordan Glover

Hi Ed 860: Enrollment Management

Penn State World Campus

Understanding Student Needs in Relationship to the College Visit and Yield

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Introduction

Enrollment services is a facet of higher education that requires professionals to constantly

be understanding and evaluating how they are working with their clients, typically identified as

prospective students and their families. Since professionals in enrollment services are acting as

the first touch point of a university, they must also be understanding and implementing the

newest trends to stay relevant.

In a world where year to year, recruitment is becoming more challenging for institutions,

creating recruitment and enrollment plans that are on the cutting edge of technology and

innovation is incredibly important. According to the 2017 Inside Higher Ed Survey of College

and University Admissions Directors, which was released by Inside Higher Ed and Gallup, 85%

of admissions directions were either very or moderately concerned about reaching their

enrollment goals. And, only 34% of senior officials indicated they had reached their enrollment

goals by May 1, historically the deadline for the college admissions cycle (Inside Higher Ed &

Gallup, 2017). As institutions are fighting for students , they must create a way to stand out

against other institutions, especially in areas where students have many choices regarding

choosing their education, including urban areas and areas that may have a range of opportunities

(four-year institution, two-year institution, tech school).

As a professional in enrollment services myself, I have a personal and vested interest in

this topic (and many of the topics presented throughout this course). My role in the admissions

process begins with students who want to come and visit campus. Each year, the average age

seems to be getting lower as students begin taking the college search seriously from a younger

age. In some ways, this makes our jobs easier. Obviously, students are paying attention to our

institution enough to come visit – but how do we keep them interested after they visit? How do
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we make sure they do not forget about the experience they had on campus, and the important

information that they learned during their visit? And most importantly, if they visit in ninth or

tenth grade and do not come back, how can we get them to still apply and potentially accept an

offer to attend?

To be more specific in my role, I manage our daily visits as well as our Accepted Student

Programs throughout the spring semester. I have become increasingly interested in the “pipeline”

we are creating in our admissions process for students that come to visit campus, and I am

particularly interested in college choice and why students ultimately end up making the decisions

that they make. I want to know how we can increase our yield by understanding our prospects

and their needs at an earlier stage in the process. Over the past few years we have made dramatic

changes to our Accepted Student Programs including adding two large-scale Saturday open

house style events for students with offers to all academic colleges to come to campus, and

adding “tracks” to our weekday events. By offering two tracks we cater programming to students

needs, allowing them to self-select when they register into either track. One track is a full-day

visit, designed for students that maybe have not been to campus, and are visiting schools still to

determine which will receive their acceptance. The second track is shorter, and is designed for

students who have been to campus before, or have already accepted their offer. I believe these

changes alone have allowed us to increase our yield, but how can we create programming even

more specific to what students need when they visit us at that stage to ensure we are meeting

enrollment goals year in and year out and setting ourselves up for success in the future?

I want to look at and examine the various ways that other institutions are understanding

student’s data to create good program at an earlier phase. I imagine if we could fully understand

how students make enrollment decisions, we could be more intentional with our programming
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and ultimately, more successful when it comes to planning events and programs for prospective

and accepted students.

Starting the College Search Early

Research shows that students are making some college decisions earlier than they have in

the past. Students are picking their first-choice institution by the end of the first year in high

school and the list continues to expand throughout high school (Hossler & Bontrager, 2014).

Since students are picking which institution(s) they want to look at, apply to, and attend earlier,

they are visiting schools earlier, and institutions need to be prepared to work with younger

students with an interest in their process. While this is not all happening in that first year or two

of high school, students are pushing up the timeline each year. By the time they are juniors, and

beginning to prepare for the process (by way to taking the SAT or ACT), they are ready to

receive information from us, the enrollment services professionals, so they can begin making

their decisions (Palmer, Park, & Hossler, 2012).

As students are beginning their college search process, they may decide to do a few

things that can help an institution find them, and capture them at that first touch point. Some

examples could include finding the institutions admissions website, clicking through a virtual

tour, and looking at social media accounts used by an institution. All these ways that a student

engages with a university from day one comes back to one department or professional sector –

marketing.

Communicating with Students

All touch points that students encounter should provide them the opportunity to get

connected with the university, by of course providing ample opportunities for the student to
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contact the institution, but also allowing the student to easily indicate they want information

from us. Each time a student provides us their information or gets into contact with us, they are

turned into a “lead”. How those leads are used can allow an institution to make educated

decisions about a variety of topics, including my topic of interest, events and visitation.

Institutions can increase the ways that they get leads by making it easy for visitors to the

website to provide their name and email address, and even for visitors to social media accounts

to indicate their interest. Leads gathered from different sources can be provided different kinds

of marketing depending on how their interest was gathered. As an example, students visiting the

College of Engineering’s page can be brought in as leads with an interest in engineering and/or

the sciences and provided with information about those programs. Once the lead has been

brought in and provided the appropriate communications relating to their interest, they may

move on to be a prospect, and the institution can more aggressively target them.

Generation Z

It would also be beneficial to understand other information about the leads coming in, so

they can be communicated to most effectively. These days, while it is still popular to refer to

college-aged students as millennials, they are not millennials, and some things will need to

change in order to best communicate with the incoming generation, Generation Z. In fact, about

33% of this generation is already in college (Lincoln Financial Group, 2016)! This is a great

example of enrollment management professionals needing to remain current. Students

preferences can change year to year, but it us not often that a new generation shows up ready to

look at your institution. Communicating with prospective students is a great example of

something that will need to change, as current strategies will likely be finding themselves on the

way out. It seems that preferences in communication about the admissions process have moved
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from email, to texting, and the social media platform of choice has changed from Facebook to

Instagram (Loveland, 2017). While it seems like a small part of my overall question relating to

customizing events and yield, are we hurting ourselves by sending emails asking students to sign

up, instead of texts? Should we be posting about these events on Instagram?

When considering the question of how a generation has changed the status quo of the

admissions process in such a way – it makes sense to also consider other topics that Generation Z

finds most interesting and compelling to share with them to help them make an admissions

decision. Additionally, Gen X are now also coming to campus as parents, and so the needs of

parents have changed too. Both groups of parents and students are moving towards wanting to

know about unique opportunities an institution has, as well as wanting to know logistical

information right off the bat (Loveland, 2017).

Students and parents are no longer looking for the over-produced highlight reel that has

been shared in the past. They want authenticity, student interaction, and specific information

when making their decisions, so how can we best help them to that information? It must involve

thinking outside the box and totally changing what admissions offices and visitation coordinators

like myself are doing, across the country. Obviously, the events of the past are likely not

working. Having an hour presentation followed by another hour tour with immense amounts of

structure might not be cutting it. Even with event makeovers, you still want to cater to guests

who cannot visit campus, and encourage changes to those programs as well. In the past, online

chat rooms, videos produced by an institution, and email testimonial have all been popular.

Capturing the attention of younger Generation Z students can be challenging, especially in the

digital space. They want information quickly and they want it to be authentic. A good example of

a change made to a distance visitation program comes from University of Oregon, where people
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interested in campus can now download a student-created app that acts like a virtual tour,

without having a structured route. Users can pop around campus watching interviews and seeing

campus and looking at the things that interest them. And, the university downloaded the app onto

VR goggles to send to accepted students. The university had their largest class ever in the fall of

2018. While a few more cycles will be needed to see if the goggles had a direct impact, the

university could be heading that direction. Finally, this project is student directed and based on

student interests (Sutton, 2018). This creates an authentic feel that Generation Z craves and

ensures that this is relatable and covers topics that they are interested in.

In regard to my original question about yielding students and creating events that cater to

their needs, I feel understanding Generation Z students is key. In researching all the different

ways that institutions are reaching out to students, it is clear that focusing in on Generation Z

needs and wants is the key to effectively recruiting and yielding students in today’s higher

education marketplace.

There are two large aspects of the college search process that Generation Z students seem

to focus on, which are not always things that we focus on when planning events for students. The

biggest thing seems to be a focus on cost, and a focus on whether or not the institution is worth

the cost that it is asking for. Student debt is a big question for Generation Z students – and they

are worried about a college education putting them in trouble financially. According to a 2016

study by the Lincoln Financial Group almost half of teens expect to take out about $30,000 in

loans to pay for their education. Additionally, most Generation Z students want to begin to save

money and prepare for retirement, but feel that financial planning is confusing and student loans

will be a barrier (Lincoln Financial Group, 2016).

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However, almost equally as important to Generation Z students is the prospect of good

employment and being able to provide for themselves. Generation Z is practical, and they are

willing to spend money on an education that will provide a good job market for them. Most

Generation Z students cite getting a job and saving for the future as two of the most important

aspects when looking at their future. Generation Z students are looking for competitive pay, and

good benefits, but also inspiring and challenging work (Lincoln Financial Group, 2016).

I believe that harnessing Generation Z’s interest in both of these topics provide a great

base to creating events (as well as marketing and support services) that will show these students

the information that they want to know. They want to know information like average starting

salary, how much debt students are in at graduation, and student loan default rates (Loveland,

2017). These questions are vastly different than they have been in the past, so answering them

will require a revamp of the types of information that admissions offices share, and what

departments they get their information from.

Alternatives to Status Quo

Instead of a tired admissions presentation about how great the institution they have been

admitted at is, instead maybe we should be considering how to share student testimonials about

their experiences, the opportunities they have, and let the success of students and graduates speak

for itself. Instead of scripting tours to facts about housing and dining commons, allow tour

guides to answer questions related to any topic that they feel comfortable sharing, and allow

them to use talking points about financial aid, understanding cost, and student support services to

make the message feel more relatable and authentic. There are likely many places in already

existing admissions materials that these topics can be expanded on so that materials do not need

to be entirely re-created.
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Encouraging other ways to connect other than via email for questions is an additional

change that I believe would help these students to yield at higher rates. While this is not

specifically related to events, it could help students who cannot visit campus to get in touch with

the institution more effectively. Live chat, texting with counselors, and being able to talk to

current students about their questions could all be valuable.

Conclusion

In conclusion I believe that understanding how institutions utilize student’s information

and interest to create events with higher yield is a much more complex topic that I had originally

anticipated. After spending time learning more about Generation Z and all the changes, they are

bringing with them into the world of higher education, I believe that more changes need to be

made to create events and yield strategies that fit with the types of students that are applying and

attending events.

One question I wanted to answer was what sorts of topics students want to know about to

keep programming more relevant, which was absolutely answered when learning about

Generation Z. These students are concerned about things like costs, employment rates, student

debt, and are very practical. While there are a number of topics that they have an interest in and

we can move towards focusing on, these are the two largest factors current in the decision a

Generation Z student makes when picking where to go to college.

While overhauling campus visit programs may seem like more work in the short-run, in

order to meet enrollment goals and satisfy recruitment strategies, this leg work may need to be

done to connect with the new generation of learners entering higher education.
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References

Hossler, Don, and Bob Bontrager. Handbook of Strategic Enrollment Management, John Wiley

& Sons, Incorporated, 2014. ProQuest Ebook Central,

http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/pensu/detail.action?docID=1810173.

Inside Higher Ed and Gallup. (2017). 2017 Survey of College and University Admissions

Directors. Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved from

https://www.insidehighered.com/system/files/media/2017_Admissions%20Directors%20

Survey_0.pdf

Lincoln Financial Group. (2016). Gen Z and the Challenges/Opportunities Driving Their

Financial Mindsets. Lincoln Financial Group. Retrieved from

https://newsroom.lfg.com/sites/lfg.newshq.businesswire.com/files/doc_library/file/FINA

L_Gen_Z_Sourced_Deck_8.9.16.pdf

Loveland, E. (2017). Instant Generation. The Journal Of College Admission, (235), 34-38.

Retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1142068.pdf

Palmer, M., Park, E., & Hossler, D. (2012). Why understand research on college choice?

In National Association for College Admission Counseling (Eds.), Fundamentals of

College Admissions Counseling: A Textbook for Graduate Students and Practicing

Counselors (3rd Edition) (pp. 105–120). Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Hunt.

Sutton, H. (2018). Virtual reality goggles allow students to experience campus from anywhere in

the world. Enrollment Management Report, 22(4), 6-7. doi: 10.1002/emt